Boost for Robert Heffernan’s Olympic bronze hopes

There was potentially good news for Robert Heffernan yesterday when the IAAF confirmed they have filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland against the decisions rendered by RUSADA in the cases of six Russian athletes which, if successful, would see the Corkman land Olympic bronze from London 2012.

Heffernan (Togher AC) finished fourth in the 50km race walk in London behind champion Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin who was banned for doping violations on January 20. However, Kirdyapkin’s three-year, two-month suspension was backdated to October 15, 2012, with his results annulled only from the following periods: January 25, 2011 to March 25, 2011, from June 16, 2011 to August 16, 2011, and from April 11, 2012 to June 11, 2012.

That cherry-picking by Russian anti-doping authorities allowed Kirdyapkin to hold on to his gold medal but the IAAF, the world athletics governing body, have appealed this to CAS along with the cases of fellow Russian race walkers Valeriy Borchin, Olga Kaniskina, Sergey Bakulin, Vladimir Kanaykin and Yuliya Zaripova.

The IAAF confirmed in a statement: “The IAAF confirms having filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland against the decisions rendered by RUSADA in the cases of Valeriy Borchin, Olga Kaniskina, Sergey Bakulin, Sergey Kirdyapkin, Vladimir Kanaykin and Yuliya Zaripova. All six cases arose from the IAAF Athlete Biological Passport programme launched in 2009 and had been referred to the Russian authorities for adjudication in accordance with IAAF rules.

“While the IAAF agrees with RUSADA that there is, in each case, sufficient evidence of an anti-doping rule violation and that there are aggravating circumstances justifying an increased sanction of more than two years, the IAAF disagrees with the selective disqualification of results applied by RUSADA as a consequence of the previous rulings.

“The IAAF will make no further comments pending the CAS proceedings.”